Removing commercials with MPEG2VCR - Not saving entire movie

[TheRubberChicken]

I am using the demo version of MPEG2VCR to remove commercials from MPEG2 video I have captured with my Hauppauge PVR-250. The first time I tried to save the file after removing commercials the resulting MPEG2 file was great. However, the second (and all subsequent attempts) time I tried to save the file after removing commercials only a portion of the entire MPEG2 file was saved. It was if MPEG2VCR just stopped at about 30% into the movie.
I have made sure that when I save the MPEG2 file that I move the IN and OUT markers to the beginning and end of the file respectively. I also select the option to save the entire movie.
I went with MPEG2VCR because of the ability to remove commercials without re-encoding. I have read other people speaking highly MPEG2VCR here in these forums. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[Teleri]

I have had the same prob with build 3.14 (8/2003) on my dell insperon 8200 laptop (p4 1.8mhz 1 gig ram)

I followed the steps excatly from lordsmurf.com's guide on a 900 meg mpeg2 dvd quality tv show episode recorded from my snapstream box
after editing out the comercials and hiting record mpeg2vcr said est file size of 700meg after saving I got a 188meg file that ended at the first comercial cut ( I did make sure I had mark in and out set to beginging and end of the mpeg)

out of curiosty I tried it on one of my other desktops and it worked fine. I am going ot reimage my laptop and try it agian to see if I had some weird coruption on it I know there are alot of video codecs installed

[lordsmurf]

Codec conflicts or flawed MPEGs cause that.

[FOO]

MPEG2VCR has always reported insane file sizes to me,
even when it works right.

[Coopervid]

I had similar trouble with files from the PVR-250. The MPEG structure at the end of the recording seems to be less than perfect and also caused the program to crash sometimes. Since then I use the Trim Right to cut off the end of the recording and that avoids these crashes. Should work for you, too.

[lordsmurf]

Insane file estimates are due to VBR. If it is VBR 9.8, it'll use 9.8 CBR as the estimate.

[FOO]

Silly me . I foolishly assumed it would count the BYTES in the files
when reporting filesize in BYTES

[mnkyboy]

Well, everytime I use mpeg2vcr to cut commercials, my Audio/Video is out of sync after awhile of watching the file. It starts out fine, not sure why it doesnt stay that way. I am using the latest build.

I contacted their tech support, and they wanted me to send a .wme project file. I explained to them that when cutting commercials, it doesnt make this file. I havent heard from them since.

Am I doing something wrong? What could be causing the a/v out of sync?

I AM using nanompeg for this, and it works perfect everytime. BUT mpeg2vcr is alot faster to mark in/out the commericials, so I would like too use mpeg2vcr before nanompeg.

Why would one program work fine it the other doesnt?

[TheRubberChicken]

Have you tried using the GOP fixer first?

I have MPEG2 files recorded by my ReplayTV. I find that every one of my files has massive GOP errors, so this is what I do...

1) I run the MPEG2 file created my ReplayTV through the GOP fixer in Womble. You can find this under Tools -> MPEG GOP Fixer. I use the final option which is to scan and fix all GOP related erors. This usually takes less than a minute.

2) I then trim about a second or two worth of footage from the front and the back of the video.

3) I then edit commercials out by selecting the commercials and using the "cut selected range" button.

It has been working fine for me ever since I started using this method.

- The chicken

[grossjamesh]

I have agree with TheRubberChicken. I have found Womble to be an excellent editor, but it doesn't like MPEG files with errors. That is why I always run the MPEG files through the GOP Fixer.
I suspect that many of the problems people see in finished DVDs, such as jumps and jerkiness and failure to play, ect are due to errors in the base MPEG file.
Remember GIGO.